Hype is the coin of the realm in the technology business. If you listen to vendors and the media, it may sometimes seem as though every new product, service, concept or even security threat will be the Next Big Thing. Some live up to all the fuss, but many don't -- and some fail spectacularly.
Take the Michelangelo virus, the subject of a media frenzy 15 years ago. March 6, 1992, was the day that the dreaded virus was supposed to strike. Journalists went overboard covering this virus, which had supposedly burrowed itself into hard drives around the world throughout 1991 and was set to start destroying data on March 6, the birthday of the famous artist.
It didn't happen that way, of course: Damage was minimal. But in honor of Michelangelo's birthday, we thought we'd track down history's biggest technology flops.
Here we nominate 21 of our favorite overhyped failures, presented in alphabetical order. At the end of the piece, we'll ask you to vote on which is the biggest tech flop of them all, or write in a nominee of your own.
The Top Flops
First we present the biggest flops, in which the hype-to-success ratio was farthest out of whack. The 14 products and technologies listed here weren't all bad. In fact, some were quite good but were either too far ahead of their time or were victims of overblown expectations. Others, of course, were downright lousy.
Apple Newton
In 1993, Apple hyped its Newton PDA as only Apple can, with clever advertising and relentless word-of-mouth campaigns. While the device's physical size was gargantuan by today's standards, it was full of features, such as personal information management and add-on storage slots, that remain essential parts of today's mobile devices.
Apple Newton
Apple Newton. Image courtesy of Retro Thing.
So why did Newton flop? One reason was the ridicule heaped on it by talk show comedians and comic strips (most notably "Doonesbury"), which focused on the supposed inaccuracy of the handwriting recognition.
Also, Newton was expensive -- about $700 for the first model and as much as $1,000 for later, more advanced models. In addition, Newton was arguably ahead of its time.
Still, before it faded away in 1998, Newton paved the way for PDAs, which led, in turn, to today's smart phones. In particular, the smaller, cheaper Palm Pilot, which was released in 1995 and became a runaway success.
To clarify, the official name of Apple's product was the MessagePad; Newton was really the name of the operating system. But Newton captured the public's imagination, so that's what the device was popularly called.
Digital audio tape
Take yourself back to the mid-'80s when analog tape cassettes were still a common method of purchasing and transporting music. They were easier to manage than old vinyl LPs but they didn't sound as good.
Sony DAT player
Sony DAT player. Image courtesy of Retro Thing.
So it was logical that digital audio tape (DAT), developed by Sony and Philips, would become a Next Big Thing: It was digital, didn't use compression and used higher sampling rates than audio CDs. Indeed, a quick office poll found that at least two Computerworld editors put off purchasing CD players because they were waiting for DAT to take off.
Alas, this was another good idea that failed miserably. First, there was the matter of competing formats. Audio CDs, which were introduced around 1983, were starting to be embraced by consumers. Then the recording industry became concerned that DAT would encourage piracy because it could be used to make near-perfect digital copies of recorded music. The industry convinced Congress to pass the Audio Home Recording Act in 1992, which required strong -- some might say Draconian -- copy protection for DAT. It also required that DAT equipment vendors pay royalties to the recording industry.
That stumbling block cleared the way for audio CDs. DAT survived a while for professional recording applications, but never came close to justifying its early hype.
DIVX
Presaging our current era of Netflix and downloadable movies, DIVX (not to be confused with DiVX, the video codec) flashed brightly in the late '90s, then flamed out. The idea, hatched by electronics retailer Circuit City, was interesting -- you would rent movies on DIVX discs that you could keep and watch for two days. Then you'd toss or recycle the discs, or pay a continuation fee to keep viewing them.
Prices were to be competitive with video store rental fees, with the added benefit of not having to return the disc. All that was required was a DIVX player, which Circuit City would be happy to sell you, and the movie discs, which Circuit City also would be happy to sell you.
Hardware vendors went along for a while but weren't overly enthusiastic, since the DVD format, for which they also were manufacturing players, was starting to gain traction at the time. And the video-rental industry fought the concept tooth and nail, loudly proclaiming the benefits of the DVD format, which they called "Open DVD," over DIVX.
Consumers didn't warm to the scheme either, fearing that DIVX vs. DVD could turn into another costly Betamax vs. VHS debacle. DIVX died a rapid death -- it was launched in 1998 and was pretty much sunk by the middle of 1999, leaving some people with worthless equipment -- although vendors did offer a $100 refund for those who bought a DIVX player. Still, left behind were lots of bad feelings about yet another bright idea that flopped.
Dot-bombs
Oh, those glorious days in the late '90s, when everyone thought they'd get rich off the Internet! One poorly conceived dot-com company after another was launched and promoted with an influx of money from the venture capital community. The lucky ones went public and saw their stock prices go through the roof and then plummet after the bubble burst in 2000. Many others never even made it that far before fizzling out.
Although they represented a wide range of concepts and products, it's hard not to think of these "dot-bombs" as one entity, which is why we've entered them as a single nominee.
Pets.com sock puppet
The Pets.com spokespuppet.
If there's one enduring symbol of the dot-bomb era, it was Pets.com's wretched sock puppet advertisements, which figured prominently during the 2000 Super Bowl broadcast. Other advertisers for that year's big game included forgettable (and forgotten) companies like LifeMinders, OurBeginning.com and the cheerfully named Epidemic.com.
Maybe the dot-bomb CEOs should have banded together to start Hubris.com. The CEO of OurBeginning.com, which spent $5 million to advertise on the Super Bowl, was quoted in BusinessWeek as saying, "I consider myself a visionary." He apparently couldn't foresee that his Super Bowl spending would hasten the end of his company.
E-books
Sony Reader
Sony Reader. Image courtesy of Sony.
E-book readers started being sold about 10 years ago and are still being developed. The most recent entrant into the market is the Sony Reader. But they're still a flop.
The idea is attractive because, theoretically, e-book technology allows you to load many books and periodicals on a reasonably small handheld device, making it easier to travel with lots of reading matter. Also, e-books are easily searchable, another huge advantage over paper books.
However, e-books are much in need of standardization. Specifically, the number of potential formats for e-books remains huge -- the Wikipedia entry for e-books lists more than 20 formats. It's not pleasant to contemplate buying an e-reader and then finding out that a book or periodical you want is available only in an incompatible format.
Furthermore, the devices themselves just aren't good enough yet. Some folks find them unwieldy; others say they're difficult to use. And for many people, there's just no replacing the old-fashioned, reassuring feel of paper.
IBM PCjr
Like the Apple Newton, IBM's PCjr was ahead of its time. Unlike Newton, PCjr was poorly designed.
Released to great fanfare in 1984 with at least two magazines devoted to it, IBM hoped PCjr would catch on as a relatively inexpensive version of its IBM PC for homes and schools. In those days, the Apple II and console devices like the Commodore 64 dominated those still-small markets.
IBM PCjr
IBM PCjr. Image © Jim Leonard (OpenContent License applies).
The PCjr was both expensive and unpleasant to use. Its infamous chiclet keyboard was wireless, but the raised keys -- kind of like BlackBerry keys that overdosed on growth hormone -- were uncomfortable to use for basic tasks like touch-typing. And, in another burst of dubious inspiration, PCjr didn't come with a hard drive. Instead, programs were contained on cartridges that you plugged into the front of the device.
IBM pulled the PCjr from the market in 1985. The company targeted the home and educational markets again a few years later with the PS/1, which met a similar fate as PCjr.
Internet currency
Remember Flooz and Beenz? These two Internet bubble vendors arguably deserved to die simply because of their goofy names. They provided online currency, which many dot-com proponents in the late '90s considered the secret sauce that would lead to the wild success of e-commerce.
Beenz logo
The idea was to create an "Internet currency" that was not legal tender in any particular country but could be used to purchase items on the Web. Both vendors generated a lot of hype, but Flooz's commercials featuring Whoopi Goldberg received the most attention.
Flooz logo
Unfortunately, consumers inexplicably preferred to use real money and credit cards. And Flooz faced a battery of consumer complaints before its demise in 2001. Before they expired, Beenz and Flooz agreed to work together, proving once again that in the warped universe of techno-hype, one plus one can equal zero.
Iridium
It was an undeniably brilliant idea to launch 66 satellites and link them with mesh technology for routing calls to and from any point in the world. And when it started in 1998, Iridium entranced the technology world. "Iridium's core identity is defined by its transcendence of national borders, a structure that is particularly post-Cold War," Wired magazine gushed in its October 1998 cover story. "Iridium may well serve as a first model of the 21st-century corporation."
But Iridium's technology cost an immense amount of money to deploy, and most users were resistant to paying dollars per minute of call time and carrying around a phone larger than a brick. Less than a year later, Wired News backtracked, saying, "After losing nearly US$1 billion in two disastrous quarters, the engineering marvel is in danger of becoming the Ford Edsel of the sky."
In 2000, the company was taken over by Iridium Satellite LLC, which recently said that it wants to launch new satellites and hopes to attract partners to provide services beyond basic voice calling, such as a next-generation global positioning system. Time will tell if its current incarnation is more successful than its first.
Microsoft Bob
Bob was a graphical user interface built on top of Windows 3.1. The idea was to make Windows palatable to nontechnical users. But Bob, released in 1995, was far more stupid than its users, most of whom saw the interface as an insult to their intelligence.
Bob's cartoon-like interface was meant to resemble an office or living room. You were walked through tasks by silly-looking cartoon characters (something Microsoft persisted in doing with its Windows Help system long after Bob perished).
Microsoft Bob logo
Perhaps worst of all, Bob's logo included a yellow smiley face for the "o" in the name. Bob eventually faded away, and even Microsoft executives agreed it had been a miserable failure.
The Net PC
The Net PC was yet another small, overpromoted computing device aimed at home users.
3Com Audrey
3Com's Audrey.
Image courtesy of Retro Thing.
Like the thin clients used in corporate IT, Net PCs consisted of a screen, keyboard and pointing device with little built-in intelligence. They were designed to be placed unobtrusively throughout the home, providing a simple user interface for Web and e-mail access.
The best-known Net PC was the iOpener by Netpliance, which ran ads during the 2000 Super Bowl, along with a host of other hype-happy technology start-ups that no longer exist. 3Com Corp. got into the act with its Audrey, and Oracle Corp.'s Larry Ellison launched a company, New Internet Computer, to develop and sell the devices.
The problem: Net PCs were introduced just as the price of more intelligent desktop PCs was plummeting. Why buy an extremely limited device when you could get a full-featured computer for around $300? After a couple of years of hype, Net PCs faded away.
The paperless office
It's not known exactly when this dream of marketers and technology vendors emerged, although the Christian Science Monitor suggested in a 2005 article that the term "was probably first coined in a 1966 article in the Harvard Business Review in reference to the emergence of digital data storage."
Just as futurists in the 1950s boldly but inaccurately predicted that computers would cut our work days in half, offices without paper have turned out to be a pipe dream. A book published by MIT Press in 2002 called The Myth of the Paperless Office found that e-mail caused a 40% increase in paper use in many organizations.
True, the role of office paper has been changing recently. Most large organizations now depend on digital, not paper, storage of documents. And the Christian Science Monitor found that sales of plain white office paper are, indeed, leveling off. But even if office paper consumption is leveling, take a look around your office: Is it paperless yet? Will it be paperless anytime soon? We didn't think so.
Push technology
PointCast Network home page
Vintage hype from the PointCast Network.
We're not talking here about pushing e-mail to mobile devices, which was made incredibly popular by BlackBerries. This is about companies like the PointCast Network, which launched its software with a hype storm in 1996. The hype focused on how this technology could "push" news and other information to computer desktops with no user intervention.
However, most users never became excited about push. Those who did take the technology for a spin found themselves inundated with news, weather, sports and more; it wasn't easy to filter what specific information was received. There was also a strong backlash from employers, which prohibited the use of push products for fear they would hog network bandwidth and distract workers.
Push technology hasn't really gone away. In addition to mobile e-mail, RSS feeds and many of today's desktop widgets are a form of push, but with more filters and controls than their early forebears. But the original hype was so far off the charts that companies like PointCast faded away.
Smart appliances
Your refrigerator knows when you are low on milk and automatically orders more over the Internet. The cow juice and your other groceries are delivered to your front door. How has our species survived so long without this?
The (supposedly) irresistible appeal of smart appliances created a buzz at trade shows and was widely discussed in the media in the two years before the dot-com bubble burst. The idea was supported by virtually all major appliance vendors as well as dot-com grocery delivery services like Peapod and NetGrocer. Supermarket chains also scrambled to get a piece of the action. And Intel, always eager to sell chips -- even those used in refrigerators -- was part of the frenzy too.
Long story short: The bubble burst, and we haven't heard much about intelligent appliances since. Somehow, we're still surviving.
Virtual reality
The idea sounds fantastic -- put on special goggles, gloves and perhaps other connected clothing and immerse yourself fully in a 3-D game, training session or other activity. That idea made early VR proponents heroes to many technologists. One of those folk heroes was Jaron Lanier, who in the mid '80s started a company called VPL Research to create virtual reality products.
Maybe VR failed in the mass market because of consumer concerns that the equipment would cost too much or make them look silly. Or maybe virtual reality worlds were less real and compelling than our own imaginations. In any case, VR never took off commercially, even though some useful niche applications, such providing surgeons with a way to practice tricky medical procedures, still exist.
The Runners-up
Not all flops were as spectacular as the ones mentioned above. Many were momentarily successful or technically adept -- or they simply weren't hyped as much as our main flops. Here we present six additional flops that we consider also-rans -- but perhaps you'll think differently.
Apple Lisa
Apple Lisa
Apple Lisa. Image courtesy of Stan Sieler.
Before the Macintosh, there was the Apple Lisa, released in early 1983. Unlike the Macintosh, the Lisa went nowhere fast.
It sported a graphical user interface and supported multitasking, but it was slow, slow, slow and expensive -- just under $10,000 at first. Its demise was hastened both by the growing popularity of the IBM PC and by the release of Apple's sleeker, less expensive Macintosh in 1984.
Dreamcast
Sega Dreamcast controller
DC controller. Image courtesy
of PiaCarrot
(GFDL and CC
ShareAlike apply).
Sega was an important early player in the game console business, but its fortunes had faded by the late '90s. It hoped its Dreamcast system, launched in the U.S. in late 1999, would help it regain its place in the game console pantheon.
But even though the device sold more than 10 million units, Dreamcast fell victim to other game consoles, most notably the PlayStation 2, which was released in spring of 2000.
NeXT logo
NeXT
If it's possible for a failure to be a huge success, this is it. Launched by Steve Jobs in 1985 after his exile from Apple, NeXT's platform and high-end computers didn't sell well.
But when Jobs sold NeXT to Apple in 1996 for a reported $400 million, the NeXT operating system eventually became a significant part of Mac OS X.
OS/2
OS/2 logo
This operating system wasn't a true failure, but its hype far exceeded its success.
When it was released in 1987, OS/2 was a joint project between Microsoft and IBM, but when that marriage hit the rocks -- about the time Microsoft released Windows 3.0 -- IBM decided to go it alone with OS/2. Remarkably, even though IBM's interest in OS/2 faded out in the '90s, it only stopped supporting the operating system at the end of last year.
Qube
Talk about an idea that was way before its time. Qube (not to be confused with The Qube, a Sun server appliance) was launched in 1977 by Warner Communications as an attempt to give the company a leg up in the early cable TV wars. The system used a set-top box and remote control to give viewers features like interactive television and pay-per-view feature movies. (For details, see Ken Freed's "When Cable Went Qubist".) Launched to great fanfare in Columbus, Ohio, Qube spread to a handful of other cities. It was popular among many users, but it couldn't overcome other Warner mistakes and met its demise in the early '90s.
Speech recognition
Over the years, Bill Gates (among others) has repeatedly predicted that speech recognition will be a major form of input, but it hasn't happened yet. Part of the problem is that, even with 99% accuracy, there are still a lot of errors to correct. Plus, many of us use computers in public places where speech recognition would be clumsy, embarrassing or downright rude. Still, the technology continues to improve, and it is being used in niche markets such as in medicine. Maybe someday it'll make it to the rest of us.
WebTV
WebTV logo
This flop is still around, and Microsoft remains its primary proponent. In simple terms, it consists of a set-top box that connects your TV to the Internet. WebTV Networks was founded in 1995, and Bill Gates was enamored enough with the concept to buy the company a few years later -- it's now called MSN TV. Among the reasons this idea never caught on was that set-top boxes don't have much intelligence, and the Web looks wretched on standard low-definition televisions. Undaunted, Microsoft continues to plug away.
Don't Believe the Hype: The 21 Biggest Technology Flops
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Don't Believe the Hype: The 21 Biggest Technology Flops
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Even when I was twelve years old, I was convinced that virtual reality was nothing more than a super-expensive gimmick and would never truly go anywhere.
I believe in a sign of Zeta.
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I never understood how you could have a good interface with it. It made no sense to me to be put into a world in which I had no effective tactile sensation and somehow had to "interact" with objects inside of it. How could I tell if I was walking into a wall? How would I resolve clipping problems? How would I move around naturally?Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Even when I was twelve years old, I was convinced that virtual reality was nothing more than a super-expensive gimmick and would never truly go anywhere.
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Well, in movies like Johnny Mnemonic (which was awesome), you don't really walk around or shit. You just fiddle with your hands, which have funky VR gloves, and see things with your VR hat.
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So where is linux on the, home, desktop in that list?
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Speaking of virtual reality the list forgot VRML. It was a language that allowed designing 3D worlds on websites. It was a huge hype among web developers in the 90s.
Other things merit a mention too. The 3DFX Glide drivers for instance, a competitor to OpenGL and Directx. It failed despite being very impressive for it's time.
Windows CE should also be somewhere on that list. It never became as succesful as predicted. Cellphones have taken over the role of CE devices.
And what about those tamagatchis ? Every kid in the 90s had one. Now they just vanished.
Other things merit a mention too. The 3DFX Glide drivers for instance, a competitor to OpenGL and Directx. It failed despite being very impressive for it's time.
Windows CE should also be somewhere on that list. It never became as succesful as predicted. Cellphones have taken over the role of CE devices.
And what about those tamagatchis ? Every kid in the 90s had one. Now they just vanished.
I have to tell you something everything I wrote above is a lie.
well isn't Windows mobile and pocket PC based on WinCE? i'm pretty sure a lot of smartphone must have some parts of the code of WinCE inside them.Sarevok wrote: Windows CE should also be somewhere on that list. It never became as succesful as predicted. Cellphones have taken over the role of CE devices.
Tamagotchis were a fad, no contest here, but i'm pretty sure they were pretty profitable.And what about those tamagatchis ? Every kid in the 90s had one. Now they just vanished.
In the Total flops, i'd like to nominates:
-The Apple Bandai Pippin
- The Nec PC-FX (i still own one )
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Agree: I wouldn't go so far as to call the Dreamcast a flop. It certainly was an overall loser in that round of console wars, but it sold reasonably well in Japan and AFAIK was actually a profitable endeavour for Sega (just not profitable enough to support development of a follow on machine). As it recall it wasn't particularly hyped by console standards - the PS2 and Xbox both got a lot more hype. It's just memorable because it was the end of Sega in the console market (not to mention the last in a long series of serious mistakes made by the company).I'd disagree with the Dreamcast being a total flop, hell games and consoles are still sold today in limited numbers.
For a true Sega flop (and general piece of junk) I'd pick the 32X, but that just doesn't have the fame of the Dreamcast (or Saturn even).If you want a SEGA flop, look at the Saturn.
VR had the problem of being hyped up way before the basic tech was up to scratch. The displays were blurry and low-res, the motion trackers were unreliable, the kit was heavy and very expensive and worst of all the 3D rendering software and hardware was pathetic by modern standards. The initial VR arcade games (from Virtuality) were based on Amigas, and as much as I loved the platform it just couldn't do decent real-time 3D. The tactile interface issue is still a serious limitation in some applications, and not one that we can really solve convincingly without direct neural interfaces, but I suspect VR will eventually make a big comeback once the tech is mature and it becomes fashionable with investors to throw money at it.Even when I was twelve years old, I was convinced that virtual reality was nothing more than a super-expensive gimmick
As I said on another thread recently, 'never' is a long time. But it's certainly possible that we'll have Matrix-quality direct neural interfaces before VR (in the strict sense) ever becomes really popular. That said a lot of late 80s and early 90s writers used the term pretty loosely; many of them would consider Second Life to be 'VR'. If so, Gibson made it sound so much cooler than what we actually got.and would never truly go anywhere
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At the end of its lifecycle the Newton division had just gone profitable, and its sales were at the highest point ever, and were growing.
The product line only got axed because Jobs wanted to purge Apple of all remaining vestiges of John Scully's treachery immediately after his return.
I still use my 2100 every day.
The product line only got axed because Jobs wanted to purge Apple of all remaining vestiges of John Scully's treachery immediately after his return.
I still use my 2100 every day.
That is why there was a ":P" there. It wasnt a serious suggestion.Destructionator XIII wrote:You have to remember that isn't the goal of Linux. It is only idiots who seriously think that will ever take off in a significant way.Xon wrote:So where is linux on the, home, desktop in that list?
Windows CE is still kicking around, and it is one of many Microsoft products which never really took off. Microsoft really doesnt do 'slim' devices, they are all about features. And untill recently PDA's & cellphones just didnt have the CPU or memory power.Sarevok wrote:Windows CE should also be somewhere on that list. It never became as succesful as predicted. Cellphones have taken over the role of CE devices.
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They were enormously profitable. In fact they still make them.Mobius wrote:Tamagotchis were a fad, no contest here, but i'm pretty sure they were pretty profitable.Sarevok wrote:And what about those tamagatchis ? Every kid in the 90s had one. Now they just vanished.
I believe in a sign of Zeta.
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If you want a pair of flops from the same company, there's the Atari Jaguar console, I believe also the Lynx portable, oh, and make it three flops, there was the Atari Falcon computer.
One more that was around, but I can't remember the name of it was Sega's handheld system, the Game Gear.
One more that was around, but I can't remember the name of it was Sega's handheld system, the Game Gear.
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The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.
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Where's the damn VirtualBoy? That thing flopped harder than a sumo wrestler off the highdive platform.
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You're not supposed to know about Nintendo's forgotten child. I tell ya they buried that thing faster than your could say Mario Clash. After the all the publicity, commercials, and the one issue of Nintendo Power devoted to it (even came with 3D glasses) that machine disappeared from the Nintendo canon of gaming like Jimmy Hoffa.The Dark wrote:Where's the damn VirtualBoy? That thing flopped harder than a sumo wrestler off the highdive platform.
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Well, given sufficient technology, I suppose you could have a circular treadmill to walk around and you could have some sort of body suit that would provide appropriate tactical feedback, but it would be prohibitively expensive.Master of Ossus wrote:I never understood how you could have a good interface with it. It made no sense to me to be put into a world in which I had no effective tactile sensation and somehow had to "interact" with objects inside of it. How could I tell if I was walking into a wall? How would I resolve clipping problems? How would I move around naturally?
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"Dating is not supposed to be easy. It's supposed to be a heart-pounding, stomach-wrenching, gut-churning exercise in pitting your fear of rejection and public humiliation against your desire to find a mate. Enjoy." - Darth Wong
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That would be 'spherical' treadmill and it's been done (at research labs), but as you'd expect it's ungainly, expensive and doesn't solve the 'walking through walls' problem. When I was a student I designed a system that essentially had you put on slippery shoes with magnets in them and used a floor that was basically a big 2D linear motor. It worked in theory - like a treadmill it's not a perfect solution because you'd still be able to notice that you're not actually moving (visual stimuli would probably override this), but the control system could let you approach the chamber walls such that they corresponded to walls in the virtual world, and it used a lot less space than a spherical treadmill (though a lot more control electronics). Good for playing VR FPSes I thought, but would've been a bitch to actually develop and maybe something of a safety hazard if the linear motor driver software crashed.Well, given sufficient technology, I suppose you could have a circular treadmill to walk around and you could have some sort of body suit that would provide appropriate tactical feedback, but it would be prohibitively expensive.
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I would not call the Virtual Boy a technological flop comparable at all to the majority of the items on that list. It was merely the only Nintendo console that failed in the market, and Nintendo quickly recovered soon afterwards.The Dark wrote:Where's the damn VirtualBoy? That thing flopped harder than a sumo wrestler off the highdive platform.
It's not even comparable to the Dreamcast, who's lack of success served as the final blow for Sega to exist the hardware industry.
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no one talks about this flop..
The Mini-Disk remember this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc
Link
oh and this one
the 3Do...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DO_Intera ... ultiplayer
Link
and this one
the CD-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-i
Link
The Mini-Disk remember this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiniDisc
Link
oh and this one
the 3Do...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3DO_Intera ... ultiplayer
Link
and this one
the CD-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-i
Link
Last edited by Dennis Toy on 2007-04-08 03:26am, edited 2 times in total.
You wanna set an example Garak....Use him, Let him Die!!
- Drooling Iguana
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Don't forget the 7800.Jade Falcon wrote:If you want a pair of flops from the same company, there's the Atari Jaguar console, I believe also the Lynx portable, oh, and make it three flops, there was the Atari Falcon computer.
One more that was around, but I can't remember the name of it was Sega's handheld system, the Game Gear.
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- Arthur Summerfield, US Postmaster General 1953 - 1961
"These deadly rays will be your death!"
- Thor and Akton, Starcrash
"Before man reaches the moon your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to England, to India or to Australia by guided missiles.... We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."
- Arthur Summerfield, US Postmaster General 1953 - 1961
- Dennis Toy
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How about Super-VHS? Anyone remember this bizarro little format that could record and play back movies at higher resolution than standard VHS? To this day, DVD players and TV sets still have the S-Video connectors that were once called S-VHS and were invented for the Super-VHS set-top units.
Of course, the problem was that these players cost far more than standard VHS players, nobody was selling movies in the format, and there were no high-def sources at the time for you to record off the air, so in practice, the increased resolution of S-VHS was purely academic and would never be used.
Of course, the problem was that these players cost far more than standard VHS players, nobody was selling movies in the format, and there were no high-def sources at the time for you to record off the air, so in practice, the increased resolution of S-VHS was purely academic and would never be used.
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http://www.stardestroyer.net/Mike/RantMode/Blurbs.html
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Mike/RantMode/Blurbs.html
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BTW Dennis Toy, I edited your post to change the in-line images to links. What the fuck were you thinking when you decided to in-line a goddamned 1368 pixel wide picture?
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Mike/RantMode/Blurbs.html
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Mike/RantMode/Blurbs.html